Just Lily
by ladypirate12
Summary: After accidentally revealing his powers to a citizen, Warren Peace learns a lot about a co-worker, a little about himself, and maybe even a bit about love.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The first time Warren Peace had actually noticed Lily Sanders, he had been doing something really stupid.

He was in the alley behind the restaurant where he worked, The Paper Lantern, and had just gotten off the phone with his girlfriend Beth during his 30-minute lunch break.

"Listen, Warren honey, I think you're a great guy, and the whole fire and ice thing was totally hot, but were just, like, too different to work out. Besides, I'm going to be staying with my mom in California for school and everything now, not just summers, and long distance relationships really aren't my thing. Sorry about having to do this over the phone, but it's best this way. Have a great summer. Bye!" The line went dead and he sighed in relief.

_Thank god I didn't have to tell her that, _he thought. Warren had felt the weird-ness in the relationship for a while, but he had had absolutely no idea how to break it off. He did not want to have to deal with a crying cryokinetic, and that's how most break-ups he had witnessed (he hadn't seen many) had ended, some girl on the floor crying her eyes out while the guy stood around, looking uncomfortable.

Warren took off the stupid leather hair tie Beth had bought him and smiled. He always felt guilty when he didn't wear it because it was a present from his girlfriend, but he definitely preferred the plain black hair elastic he had stolen from Layla. A flame ignited in the palm of Warren's hand and as he was burning the offending hair accessory into ash, he heard a noise behind him. He whipped around and nervously tried to hide his hands and look intimidating.

"That is so cool." Lily Sanders looked at Warren Peace with a newfound appreciation. "And here I though you were just a brooding busboy with some serious angst issues."

"It's not what it… You must just be….This is all just a… What the hell are you doing out here?" he finally demanded.

"Relax, Zippo, I was taking out the trash."

"Why are you still here? The trash is in he dumpster, don't you have someplace else to be?"

"Well, my shift ends in two minutes, so I was planning on going home and watching reruns of Gilmore Girls, but this is way more entertaining."

Warren looked at the sarcastic girl before him with a calculating expression. "So none of this freaks you out, or even just bothers you a little? You know, the fact that I just went Torch, you're fine with it?"

Lily nodded calmly, "Yep. My brother had a friend who had a boyfriend whose friend's sister's boyfriend could do the same thing. I totally understand why you don't go ho the public school though now, wouldn't want you charbroiling teachers when you didn't get an A or something. Makes sense." Warren looked at her in disbelief. He tried to open his mouth to articulate, but no sound came out. He hadn't been so shocked, not even when popsicle got a girlfriend.

"Well, hot head, this has been a stimulating conversation, but I gotta go clock out. Later." She turned to head inside.

"Hold on." Warren found his voice, "Who are you?"

She turned around slowly, quirked an eyebrow and smirked, "Seriously? We've worked at the same restaurant for like, two years now. You're smart, I'm sure you can figure it. Catch you later Warren Peace." And with that, she turned and walked away, leaving him speechless.


	2. Chapter 2

Lily Sanders had always been good with weird. It probably came from the fact that, when she was 12, she and her 14 year old brother had been taken in by her 19 year old brother-turned-sister after her dad had been turned into a tree following her mother's affair with a wristwatch model, whom she had decided to run away with. Before moving to Maxville, Lily and her family, sans Glen-now-Glenda, had lived in Metropolis, home of aliens with absolutely no fashion sense (banana-yellow spandex underwear is just wrong, no matter how heroic you may be), and the freaks whom aforementioned aliens fight. One such freak was Steven Rosenberg, aka, the Gardener. This guy was just weird. His psychosis was inevitable, what with being stuck in a dark lad all day and all nigh with no one to understand your crazy technobabble. Anyway, one day, in his dank underground lab, he cracked and decided that the world would be better off with Superman as a plant. Yep, a plant. A tree to be exact. So Steve spends months locked away in that little lab, cut off from the rest of society with only a pile of prune fruit leathers to live on until finally, Eureka! He had discovered a way to turn any living organism into a ficus tree. So, one Wednesday evening, he donned a green ski mask and set upon the fine city of Metropolis, armed with his ray of plant doom to take down the world's greatest superhero. He set up in the middle of the shopping district at exactly 5:33 pm, waiting for his moment of glory. Superman came exactly seven minutes later because The Gardener had taken out an ad in the paper explaining his nefarious plot, and Superman always read his morning paper.

One person who didn't read the morning paper however, was a newly single man by the name of Harold Sanders. Mr. Sanders had gone into town to buy his whole family shiny new pocket watches after swearing off wristwatches and breaking up the ones he and his children owned with a sledgehammer. He had just come out of Percy's Precious Pocket Watches and Pastries looking very pleased with his purchase. He unwittingly stepped right into the path of The Gardener's Ray of Vegetation as Rosenberg fired at Superman. This would have gone completely according to plan, had Steve Rosenberg not had extreme nearsightedness issues.

Without his glasses, he was even blinder than a bat. So, he aimed at the first moving blob that could have been Superman and fired. Mr. Sanders didn't eve have time to let out a cry of surprise as his molecules quickly shifted and he became a photosynthesizing, leafy green ficus. Superman then proceeded to laser the Ray of Vegetation into dust and hit the Gardener on the head so hard that he began to believe that he was a mid-western cowboy named Saul. He was taken to Arkham mental hospital, but released on good behavior.

Saul Gardener now resides in Iowa and owns a ranch. Lily, Ben, and Glenda Sanders now live in Maxville and own a ficus. Their mother didn't even call to check if they were watering their father every week.

So yes, it's safe to say that Lily Sanders was good with weird. It is also safe to say that she had totally lied to Warren Peace about her friend's cousin's, well her whatever. She had honestly never, ever, ever in her life even met any of her friends' cousins. Or even discussed them. But, she had been completely truthful when she had said that she was totally fine with his powers. She had lived in a town with Superman for goodness sake, superpowers didn't faze her!

As she settled onto the couch in the two-bedroom apartment she shared with her siblings and turned on the Gilmore Girls marathon (she hadn't lied about that either), she contemplated the day's events. Work had just gotten a heck of a lot more interesting, that was for sure. She was a little put out that Warren didn't know her name, though. I mean really, they had worked together for two years, ever since she had accidentally sent in an application to the weird Chinese restaurant instead of the 24-hour photo place next door. Good thing too, because Quickie Photo and Bagel shop went out of business after people found out what was really in the bagels. ew.

So, all in all, it had been a remarkable day. Whether that was a good thing or not was undecided.


	3. Chapter 3

Warren Peace had stayed up until four in the morning for three nights in a row trying to uncover the mystery that was his unnamed co-worker. He had gone through all of his elementary and middle school yearbooks looking for that face or a name to match it. Finally, after hours of fruitless searching, he broke down and decided to talk to the one person he swore would never hear about his personal life, ever: his boss and his grandmother's BFF Mrs. Wu. She had teased him mercilessly when Layla had come in that one time waiting for Will and was convinced that Warren was an anti-social loser destined to die alone. Which he was, until last year's homecoming dance. Now, he couldn't go anywhere without people talking to him. It was a change and Mrs. Wu could see it. He really didn't want to have to ask her about the weird girl at work. First, she'd probably tease him for not talking to someone he's worked with for two years, and after the initial taunting was over, she'd want to know why he was so interested and assume that he wanted to date her or something. Warren sighed. Mrs. Wu had never liked Beth Frost, even though she had only met her twice. The city bus jerked to a stop, throwing Warren's mind back into reality. He got off and walked into the Paper Lantern, readying himself for a talk with his boss.

The bell on the door jingled and he looked around the small restaurant. It was pretty empty, with only a few guys sitting at a table waiting to order. He started to go back into the kitchen, but was stopped when the girl that had been haunting his thoughts came through the doors and went over to the occupied table.

"Lily!" Lily, so that was her name. It fit in a weird way. She didn't exactly seem like a Tiffany or a Beth for that matter. A slap on the shoulder brought him back to reality. It seemed he was daydreaming more and more now, maybe he needed more sleep.

"Warren!" He turned to face a little Chinese woman that was about two or three feet shorter than him, but what she lacked in height, she made up for in personality. For eighty-two, she was surprisingly fierce.

"Hi Mrs. Wu." Warren said hesitantly.

"Why are you here?" she demanded, "I gave you today off! Don't you have a life? You need to socialize with those friends of yours, or your going to be eighty-two like me, but you'll be alone! Do you want that?" She could be so scary for such a tiny woman, especially when she gave her death stare.

"I'm going to go see them afterwards, I promise! I, I just have a question, one quick question, that's it!" He stammered. Even the intimidating bad boy loner of Sky High could be reduced to crying in a fetal position at Mrs. Wu's inquisition.

"About what?" She followed his line of sight to the table at which Lily was taking orders, then looked back and smirked. "Lily Sanders. Good choice, I never liked that Snow girl of yours anyway. So that's over, I take it?" She wiped the smirk off her face and looked up at him sweetly.

"Well, yeah, but it's not like that, I just wanted to know about… I'm not gonna date her or anything…" Warren sighed, defeated and speechless in the face of the wrath of his boss.

"Okay. So what was your question?" He eyed her warily; she was giving him a very easy time of this whole question business. When she had seen Layla that one time, it took Warren a full 45 minutes to leave after his shift ended because of her "chatting".

"Well, I guess I just wanted to know a bit about her, you know, like how old she is, where she goes to school. I mean, I've been working with her for two years and I barely know her."

Mrs. Wu smiled at him again, which was really starting to freak him out. Then, in one quick motion, she hit in on the back of the head. Hard.

"If you want to know about her, then ask HER!" With that, she walked off into the kitchen, leaving a stunned Warren and behind him, a hysterical Lily. He turned around to the sound of muffled giggles.

"Hey Warren, what's new?" Lily was nearly falling over she was laughing so hard. He glared at her and responded gruffly.

"What are you laughing at?"

"Oh, nothing much. Just you getting yelled at by your boss. On your day off, I might add." She smirked smugly, and Warren thought in the back of his mind that everybody just needed to stop the smirking already.

"Well, you know what, just, go back to your, just, go!" Why did she always seem to make his comebacks so completely awful? She smirked again. Damn that awful facial gesture and all who use it!

"Well alright then, I got an order to fill. See you around Warren." With a smile, a smile, not a smirk, she waltzed out of his sight and into the kitchen. He sighed yet again (he realized that he had been doing that a lot more than he thought was necessary as well), at least he had gotten a name.

Lily.


	4. Chapter 4

Lily Sanders had spent the past three nights waiting to see if Warren Peace had tried to figure out who she was. She had been doing other stuff too, of course. Like working, and hanging out with the guys, and watching reruns of Gilmore Girls. But Peace had been on the back of her mind, and it was bugging her. Honestly, they had been working together, oftentimes in the same room, for two years and he had no idea what her name was! What was bugging her even more though, was how much him not knowing her name was bothering her. Why should she care what Warren Peace thinks or what he knows or doesn't know, she had never cared before. And yet, it mattered, so it annoyed her.

She had work today and the thought of a certain co-worker intrigued her. Would he have figured everything out, would he be oblivious, or would he even care? She threw a pillow at the wall. It was infuriating, his stupidity. Boys were so thick. She sighed, and then got up and got ready for work.

It took Lily two whole hours before she figured out that it was in fact, a Tuesday night, and that she was the only one besides Mrs. Wu who worked Tuesday nights, and that she would not get to know if Warren had decided to overcome his incredible powers of obliviousness until Wednesday afternoon. She sighed again and sat behind the counter near the door. It was 7'o'clock on a Tuesday night and business was, as was expected, amazingly slow. She sat there behind the counter, doodling aimlessly on the Zodiac signs placemats when the door swung open and a large, noisy, slightly obnoxious but always awesome group of boys barged in.

"Lily, Lily, wherefore art thou our waitress Lily?" A rather tall, gangly boy kneeled under the counter and looked up at a slightly amused Lily while the other boys assumed dramatic poses around him.

"You know, I don't think that means what you think it means Joey." She said, a hand on her hip in mock exasperation.

"It totally means what he means it to mean!" another boy choked out, trying desperately not to laugh and ruin the façade.

"Oh really, James?" Lily replied with a raised eyebrow. "Enlighten me, what does it mean?"

"Obviously," yet another boy interjected, "It means where are you? Come on Lils, we were in 9th grade English together, you should know this."

"You should know it too, O Brilliant One. 'It means _**why**_ are you Lily?', not 'where are you?'"

"Seriously?"

"Yeah, Andrew."

"Swear?"

"On my mother's grave."

"But she's still alive. Probably."

"Yeah, but I don't know that for sure."

'Well you should probably find out before you go around swearing on her grave and such."

"Oh just take my word for it!"

"LILY!" They all jumped and Lily turned slowly to face Mrs. Wu. She was at least a head taller than the little Chinese woman but that in no way meant she wasn't afraid of her.

"Yes Mrs. Wu?" She asked hesitantly.

"Either show your friends to a table, or show them out the door." The small woman said with a smile.

"Yes ma'am."

"Good." Mrs. Wu nodded curtly and then went back into the kitchen.

"Wow." The group of boys all watched the scary woman go.

"Yeah. So, you guys gonna leave?"

"Us?" George, an athletic red-head looked astounded.

"Leave?" His brother Charlie, a lanky brunette echoed.

"Now why would we do that?" Andrew inquired.

"Because you all hate Chinese food." Lily stated simply.

"While that may be true…" Joey began.

"We hear you have an excellent supply of sodas." Michael, a short blonde boy finished for him.

"And we really aren't opposed to sodas." James supplied with a cheeky grin.

"Okay, go sit down at that booth over there and I'll get my notepad and get your drinks orders."

"Why would you need to write it down?" Andrew asked, looking as innocent as a child. "They're only sodas."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Lily said, waving him off. "They're only sodas until all of you order different mixes of the weirdest things, like orange soda and Coke."

'Mixed with some lemonade and root beer please!" Charlie piped up, a wide smile on his face.

Lily flicked his nose. "I'm coming back with my notepad."

She disappeared into the kitchen and moments later reappeared with her pen at the ready.

"Lily!" The guys chorused.

"Yes!" she shouted back.

"Okay," Andrew went first, " I want a Sprite with some Dr. Pepper, not a lot though, just a bit, and a shot of lemonade!"

"And a fruit punch with half Coke and just a tiny little bit of Ginger Ale."

"And a Coke with Ginger Ale and lemonade."

"Oooo, I want one of those too!"

"And fruit punch with root beer, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Coke, and some orange soda."

"And a water bottle." The entire table fell silent as Charlie ordered.

"Just a water?" Lily asked, slightly shocked.

"Soccer conditioning." He replied, as if it was the most common fact in the world.

"Loser." His friends scoffed.

"Be nice!" She reprimanded them. "I'll be back in a minute." She waltzed over to the kitchen doors, but stopped abruptly when she realized she was standing behind Warren Peace, who was supposed to have the day off. He was going to get it from Mrs. Wu, who was convinced he was a friendless loser destined to die alone with ten cats and a motorcycle. Lily winced as the tiny but severe woman reached up and smacked Warren on the back of his head. That had to have hurt.

"If you want to know about her, then ask HER!" With that she stormed back into the kitchen, satisfied with the good advice she had given. Lily started laughing and, try as she might, there was no stopping the flood of giggles that alerted Warren to her presence behind him. He turned around.

"Hey Warren, what's new?" She said in between giggle fits.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked, most likely annoyed and embarrassed and trying his best to be scary.

"Oh nothing." she replied nonchalantly, "Just you getting yelled at by your boss. On your day off, I might add." Lily couldn't help it, she started to smirk.

"Well, you know what, just, go back to your, just, go!" His comebacks were awful under pressure. She smirked again, knowing it would annoy him.

"Well alright then, I got an order to fill. See you around Warren." Before she turned around, Lily Sanders smiled at him, as if trying to make mends for the awful smirking epidemic that had seemingly taken over the planet. Then she walked away, back into the kitchen with only one thought in her mind.

He had been asking about her.


End file.
